The present invention relates in general to the field of computers and other data processing systems, including hardware, software and processes. More particularly, the present invention pertains to the management of the resources of such a system using rules and/or policies.
Enterprise behavior is governed by policies that, in some cases, are translated into rules to be used by computing resources (which may include both hardware and software resources). For example, an enterprise may have an enterprise policy (e.g., a corporate policy) that dictates that passwords used by computing resources must be “strong” (difficult to bypass or “break”). Such a policy may translate into a “rule,” such as the rule that “passwords must be eight characters.” A difficulty lies in how to ensure that such computing resources actually incorporate the use of a new rule. There is also a difficulty in certifying, to an enterprise's Information Systems (IS) manager, which computing resources have actually implemented the new rule.